Richard E Byrd Biography

On 20 January 1915 he married Mary Donaldson Ames with whom he had four children. He named a piece of land he discovered in the Antarctic 'Mary Bryd Land'.

In April 1918 he won his wings as a Naval Aviator. From the start of his flying career he demonstrated unusual ability. Byrd pioneered landing and navigation techniques. His war service was in Canada as Commander, US Naval Air Forces.

Byrd was soon called to Washington and made responsible for the transatlantic flight attempt of the NC flying boats in 1919 of which only Albert Read's NC-4 completed, making this the first transatlantic flight ever.

Interested in polar exploration from childhood, his adult involvement began in 1924 when he was appointed navigator for the proposed transpolar flight of the Navy's dirigible Shenandoah. When the flight was canceled Byrd began to organise his own Navy flight expedition to the Arctic. He joined forces with the MacMillan Expedition to northwest Greenland.

In 1926, he took leave from the Navy to organise a privately financed expedition to the Arctic. Byrd and his pilot, Floyd Bennett, claimed to have reached the North Pole on 9 May 1926. Both men were awarded the Medal of Honour after their return to the United States but, in later years, scholars have raised questions about the success of the expedition.

With commercial sponsorship by department-store magnate Rodman Wanamaker, he completed the first multi-engine airplane crossing of the Atlantic to France in 1927 with the aim of winning the Orteig Prize.

He once again named Floyd Bennett as his chief pilot. During a practice takeoff the airplane they were in crashed, severely injuring Bennett and slightly injuring Byrd. On their first attempt, cloud cover in Paris prevented them from landing, causing the plane to crash land near the beach at Ver-sur-Mur on 1 July 1929 with no fatalities.

On his return to the US, Byrd wrote an article for the August 1927 edition of Popular Science Monthly in which he explained that specially modified aircraft with one to three pilots would be able to fly the Atlantic without stopping but it would take another 20 years before it could be done.

In the same year, the Boy Scouts of America made him a honourary scout, awarded to those whose achievements in outdoor activity, exploration and worthwhile adventure are impressive enough to inspire the boys.

During the remaining years of his life he was involved in five expeditions to Antarctica. He flew over the South Pole in November 1929, and spent most of the winter of 1934 alone in a meteorological hut, some one hundred miles into the interior.

Byrd remained a promoter of Antarctic exploration, but with the onset of World War II he returned to active service and earned two decorations.

In the early post-war years, Byrd participated in the organisation of the US Navy Antarctic Developments Project in 1946-47. He remained an influential figure in polar research until his death on 11 March 1957. He died in his sleep of a heart ailment at his family home in Boston. By the time he died, he had acquired 22 citations and special commendations, nine of which were for bravery and two for extraordinary heroism in saving other peoples' lives.